Swapping Private Plates

[felixgogo]

Hi - I wonder if anyone has experience of swapping two private dateless plates between cars they own?

I have two cars, both with dateless plates - and I just want to swap the numbers between them. Is the online process:

1 - Remove plate A from car A and get reference number from online DVLA tool
2 - Remove plate B from car B and get reference number from online DVLA tool
3 - Assign plate A to car B using ref number
4 - Assign plate B to car A using ref number.

Both cars are taxed and MOT, and I assume I'll have to pay the 80 quid twice....?
Is removing both the plates the best way to do this?

[sherman]

I think it is. Put both plates on retention and reasign to the correct cars.

[Geertsen]

I think so too. Plus the DVLA would charge £80 per plate even if it were theoretically possible to do a straight swap (which I don’t think it is) so it’s £160 regardless.

[randomeddy]

I have just been through this swapping plates business. Under my circumstances, never again.

Too much to post, you would get bored reading it all but it was caused by a lack of advice from certain people and the fact my car was registered with a personal plate from new.

[N111BJG]

randomeddy said:

I have just been through this swapping plates business. Under my circumstances, never again.

Too much to post, you would get bored reading it all but it was caused by a lack of advice from certain people and the fact my car was registered with a personal plate from new.

I’ve assigned personal plates to new vehicles & not had trouble removing them later, so greater explanation would be useful please.

[randomeddy]

I will try and explain, but it stems from the fact that the company who sells number plates were confused by the not unusual fact the car was registered with a personal plate.

I will type out the tale at the weekend when I have access to the laptop.

[sixor8]

You could pay £80 to retain one number plate (A), then assign the other straight from one car to the other (from B to A). It only slightly reduces the admin and paperwork and it will be 2 x £80 fees. Before March 2015, you had to pay £25 p.a. 'admin fee' just to keep a plate on retention. And whisper this, the £80 fee hasn't gone up in well over 25 years.....